No Steve Jobs at 2009 Macworld, and it’ll be Apple’s last

Rumors had been floating for a while that Steve Jobs wouldn’t do the keynote at next month’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Today, Apple confirmed them, and added a shocker: This will be the last Macworld in which the company will participate.

In a news release, Apple said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, would do the keynote honors. After that, it’s buh-bye Macworld:

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

IDG, the promoter of Macworld, and Apple have had a rocky relationship in the past. Apple used to participate in far more Macworld events than the San Francisco event, and a rift developed between IDG and Apple when IDG made the decision to move the Macworld event in New York to Boston, near the company’s headquarters in Framingham. Apple promptly pulled out of that event, and the East Coast Macworld was canceled in 2005 due to lack of interest without the star attraction.

The fact that Jobs isn’t speaking has already got folks speculating about his health, or that Apple doesn’t have any killer products to show off. From VentureBeat:

. . . It’s impossible to mention this without re-starting the speculation about Jobs’ health and/or Apple having nothing major to unveil at the show.

One also has to wonder if this move means that Schiller is the heir-apparent to replace Jobs if and when he leaves Apple. Has he leapfrogged other potential successors like current Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook? Maybe that’s reading too much into it, but this is Apple’s biggest keynote of the year, and it’s Schiller who is being trusted to give it.

Apple PR folks, as they are wont to do, are tenaciously sticking to message. But the talk of this year’s Macworld is likely not to be the products on the trade show floor, but rather who’s not there – and whether the venerable event’s days are numbered as a result of Apple’s decision.